Transferring device for knitting-machines.



Np. 885,150. PATENTED APR. 21, 1908.

A. FOSTER. I TRANSFBRRING DEVICE, 'FOR KNITTING MACHINES.

APPLIOATION FILED P33. 24, 1908.

' UM D STATES PATENT O F ALBERT FOSTER, or PHILADELPHIA, PENNs L ANrA ssIeNoR or ONE-HALF -TO POWELL KNITTING COMPANY, or PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA, A CORPORATION or PENN.

SYLVANIA.

To all whom it'may concern: Be it lmown that I, ALBERT-FOSTER, of

Philadelphia, in the county of Philadelphia old in the art to employ a loop-o enerate tached to or formed upon the nee le which holds the 100 to be transferred so arranged that when t e needle carrying 'the loop is oop thrust forward to the pro or extent, the

is expanded laterally an forwardly and in such-expanded in relatlon to t point, or preferably another needle to which the loop 1s.to .be directly transferred is projected alongside the first mentionedneedle' 1position lies in such position in proper relation to it, it willreceive the loop and hold'it whilev the first mentioned needle is Withdrawn, the loop-opener being so constructed as to permit t e proper relative motion of the two needles. Such loopopeners may be used in machines adaptedto knit bothn'b and plain tubular fabric as a continuous operation. In these machines theto being of ribbed knitting requires the use of a dial plate carrying horizontal needles, while the body of the stocking, being plain knitting, is knit wholly on the vertical needles. It is therefore necessary at the point of transition from one variety of knitting to the other to transfer all of the loops held upon the dial needles to the corresponding vertical cylinder needles. To accomplish this all of the dial needles may be provided with loop-openers. At the proper point in the operation all the dial needles are projected so as to bring these loop-openers mto play to expand their 100 s. Thereupon, the cylinder needles whic are to receive these loops are advanced until they enter the loops. The dial needles are then withdrawn leaving the loopsupon the cylinder needles alone.

Specification of Letters Patent. Application filed February 24, 1906. Serial No. 302,774.,

. oop-openers so yiel e needle, that if .a transfer by the turning back upon itself of the TRANSFEQRBIING pnvrcn FOR, xm'rrmo-iueonmns.

' Patented April 21, 1908.

nection with the employment of these loopopeners by reason of the space which they occupy alo' side of the'needle to which they are attach In order to make room for them when the needles are retracted in prior machines employing loop-openers, the walls of the grooves which receive the needles, have been cut away. The difiicult with this expedient is thatwhen the needie the walls of. the needle groove w sirable in all forms of knitting o erations,

' A difficulty has been experienced in cons are projected they lose the lateral suppofit from 'c is deand which is particularly desirab e inconf nection with transfe operations, where the utmost precision in th needles is required. In order toprevent the cutting away of the walls of the needle ooves, it has been dproposed to make the mg them in such fashionthat when the needles are retracted the loop-openers are sprung into the needle grooves. But thisis ob'ectionable because of the extremeflexibility (and therefore fragility) which must be given to the loop-openers and because of the tional friction thus putu on the needle.

e alinement of the addiand to construct According to my invention employ needles y which in cross section have a greater depth than usual, and so construct theloop-opener that it is coincident with only the upper and projecting portion of the shank of the needle. y employing with'such needles grooves of the usual depth, the loop o tirely overhang the needle wa of the oove so that the needles are supported and eld in alinement during the entire length of the grooves the walls of which reach to the knitting edge of the needle cylinder or dial plate, and yet when retracted the loop-openers are not received within the needle grooves, but pass over or overhang one'of the walls. In connection with the construction of a 100 opener which thus overhangs the wall of t e needle groove, I have devised a number of forms of needles provided with said loop- 0 eners which are of convenient construct1on and which I will show and describe. 'In a number of them a feature is the integral construction-of the needle and its loop-opener wire or strip of which the needle'isjformed or a portionofit.

ener will enthe only limitations upon thesame being loop at-the time o K, are similar'views of anotherform of myfully expressed in the claims.

- In the accompanying drawings, Figures I, and II, show respectively in perspective and in plan, one form of m loop-opener as applied to a dial needle. both the needle is somewhat enlarged, more so in II, than in I. Figs; III, and IV, are sectional 'viewstaken respectively along the lines III, III, IV,-IV, in Fig. II. Fig. V, is an enlar ed view illustrative of osition of the expanded f its reception upon the needle to whichit is to e transferred.

Figs. VI, andVII, are respectively a plan and an elevation of a dial needle with a dif ferentform of loop opener. Figs. VIII, and

i invention. Fig. X, shows one way of applying my invention to a dial needle mounted on a pivoted jack. shows in lan still another form of my mvention. Fig. II, shows a portionof a dial plate carrying a needle fitted with in invention in an alternative form in whic part of the operating devices are attached to the dial plate. Fig. XIII, shows my invention as applied to a cylinder needle. Fig. XIV, shows a portion of a dial plate carryin a dial needle of the construction illustrate in Figs. I, and II.

' I will first describe the form of my invention illustrated in Fi s. I V. The dial needle 1, provided wit a hook 2, latch 3, and hub 4. These are of any convenient construction. On one side of the shank of the needle is attached the loop-opener 5, the construction of which appears clearly from the drawings. Its base 6, is, attached by soldering or otherwise to the side of the needle. Its

. central dportion lies more or less parallel to e but separated from it by'a distancethe nee at least-sufliciently great to ermit the insertion of a knittingneedle etween them. The free end 7, of the loop-opener lies against the side of the needle \being received within pose of preventing any possible engagement a depression 8, formed thereon for the puretween the end of the o ener and the loop slipping on the needle. he upper edge of V the shank of the needle and the upper edge of the 106 ener parallel thereto are one or both 0 t em (preferably both), provided with notches 9, 9. Beneath the loop opener the adjacent side of the needle is provided with a bevel 10.

It will be noted that the needle 1, is somemal position.

loop-opener is withdrawn from the loop; its

what deeper in cross section than usual, so that its entire lower half may be received within the groove of a dial plate and yet ermit the loop-opener 5, which is attache to .the upper portion'of the side of the shank of the needle and coincides wholly with this part (see particularly Figs. III,-and IV), to overhang the wall of the needle groove as shown in Fig. XIV, thus permitting the free retraction of the needle into its groove, notwithstanding the maintenance of the su portin function of the groove clear to tfie edge 0 the dial plate.

The operation of the device thus described will best be understood by a consideration of Fig. V. Here the dial needle 1, carries the loop 12, which itis desired to transfer to the corres onding cylinder needle 13. To effect this t e dial needle is thrust forward until the edge of'the loop is engaged by the notch 9, whereby the loop is thrown forward from the web to which it is attached in a forwardly distended position, and lies diagonally across the shank of the needle. By the same movement the loop-opener 5,,has been forced within the loop and distends it laterally so that it lies in the diagonal osition shown in the drawing. The cylindhr needle 13, is now thrust up so that its terminal hook is above the dial needle. By this motion the cylinder needle is forced through the loop, and at the same time between the loop-opener 5, and the side of the dial needle, the space between the twobeing sufficient to permit this. Thereupon the dial needle is retracted to its nor- As this movement occurs the free end 7, yielding to ermit the passage of the cylinder needle. 3 s soon as the withdrawal of the dial needle has been effected, the cylinder needle may be lowered to its normal position, and will carry the loop within its latch.

Referring now to Figs. VI, and VII, there will be seen a substantially equivalent loopopener formed upon a dialneedle, but of dlfferent construction. In this case the loopopener is not formed of a separate piece, as before described, but is produced by cutting a part of the upper portion of the dial needle free, and turnm it back so as to form the bight 15, the aralel edge 15, and the free end 17, whic latter, as before rests within the depression 8, correspondingly formed in the side of the dial needle.

The integral form of construction thus pro- 7 that whic Another form of loop-o ener of convenient construction is shown in Here the dial needle is formed of a single flattened wire. Below the hub, 4, the'wire is bent upon itself to form a tail 20, and the end of the: wire passing to one side of the hub is flattened to 'form the free edge 21, of the loop-opener. In this case the notch 22, is shown formed only upon the main body of the dial needle. The operation of this form of loop-o ener is similar in all res ects to ill has been described, an it embodies the principle which I havereferred to, in that the loop-opener is coincident with only the upper part of the needle, the lower part being free to run Within a dial groove of the usual length and construction.

In Fig. X, have shown a construction of my device whichis especially applicable to dial needles which are mounted upon pivoted jacks. Such a jack 25, is here shown having the dial needle 26, attached to its lower end;

'At the rear of the dial needle the metal of .the

jack is projected to form a tail 27, which returns upon itself with an outward and in ward bend to form the loop-opener 28 ;,which is coincident with only the uppler fpart of the lower end of the needle and e ree end of which is in contactwiththe side of the needial needle.

-my invention, it will be understood dle. Here the required notch 29 is provided by the recessed unction between the dial needle and the jack. I

In Fi XI, I have shown a pivoted form of loop-opener. Here the dial needle is of substantially the same shape as before, but the loop-opener consists of a short lever pivoted centrally at 30, either within or on-top of the dial needle, with a projecting spring tail 31, and a loop-opening portion 32, the

free end 33, of which 1s received within a de- In Fig. XII, I have shown another, variant -form of my invention. Here the loop-- opener again consists of a lever pivoted centrally at 30, and curved to form the loopopening portion 32, with the free end 33, received wlthin a depression in the side of the But 1n this case the spring tail is omitted and instead a spring or cam 40, is provided which is attached to the dial late in such position that when the nee e is properly thrust forward to open the loop the part 40, presses the loopgener securely against the side of the nee le, holdingit there during the transfer operation. But

when the dial needle is withdrawn the loo opener slips away from contact with t eyleld to permit 0 the passage of the vertical needle out from the loo -opener.

I In the forms in which have thus described that the only-the P P e loop-- ooves of the dial plate receive ower edge of the dial needle; the u tion thereof and particularly 7 t igs. VIII, and IX. h

. uite similar to that which is figure opener, being without the groove and overanging the ed e. This is articularly shownin Fig; X I, and Fig. V but the relation of the other needles to the groove, in which they rest, is substantially similar.

In Fig. .XIII, I have shown a 100 -opener in Figs. to V, of the drawings,but here'the o isattached to one of the vertical or cy mder needles.

This, of course, is to be employed a 100 rom such a cylinder needle to a dial need e; theoperation is in all respects the same as heretofore described and needs no special'description.

It will be understood that when in the claims, I speak of a loop-opener]? I am not confining myself to a device having the formation or configuration of those which I have specially described. Many other forms of construction for such a device will readily ,for the urpose of permitting the transfer of suggest themselves to one skilled in the art. A

They all have, however, this princi 1c in common, that when the needle to'whic are attached is dul thrust forward they expand the loop w 'ch is u on the needle sufficiently to permit anot er needle, ,or' transferring device, to be passed through the loop; They also yield to permit the withdrawal of the first named needle, when the second, or receiving needle, or transferring device, has been advanced to take the loop. To construct such a loop-o ener in such a way that it is coincident wit onl the upper part of the shank of the needle, eavin the remainder of the needle free to run wlthin and be su ported by its needle groove, is the rincip e of construction and operation Whic characterizes my invention, and the configuration is a matter of selection dependin upon the particular adaptation desired. n the claims I use the expression first needle, to designate the needle which first carries the loop to be transferred, and second needle, to designate the needle to which this loop is to be transferred; but it should be understood that the latter phrase is not confined to a\needle pro er but should be construed broadly enou to include any transfer point upon whic it is desired that the 100 shall be placed.

It W1 1 also be understood that my invention is not limited in its application to knittingneedles having pivoted latches but may be applied to needles .of the spring variety.

Having thus. described my invention, I

claim: part 40, thereby fpermitt ng its free edge to I. In a circular knitting machine, containing both dial plate and needle cylinder, the combination of aneedle groove with its walls prolonged without interruption tothe knitting edge; a needle received therein having a depth eater than. that of the needle groove; and a oop opener attached to and partially parallel, to the side of that part of the shank they 'lIO

' of the needle which projects fronwhe needle groove.

2. In a circular knitting machine containing both dial plate and needle cylinder,..the

combination of a needle groove; anda knitopener; such return ortion being coincident with only the part 0 the shank of the needle which pro'ects from the needle groove so as to leave t e remainder of the needlefree to be received within and supported by the needle groove.

3. in a circular knitting machine containing both dial plate and needle cylinder, the

combination of a needle oove; and a dial needle attached in angu ar relation to the, 'end of a pivoted jack, said dial needle having a depth greater'than that of the needle groove, a portion of the end of the aek being ent-forward parallel to and coincident with only the "part of the side .of the shank of the needle which projects from the needle groove,

.the needle groove; a

leaving all the remainder of the needle free to be received within and supported by its needle groove in the dial plate. 4

4. Ina circular, knitting machine containing both dial plate and needle cylinder, the combination of a needle groove; a needle received therein having a depth greater than 00p 0 ener attached td and partially arallel to t e side of that part of the shan of needle which rojects above its needle groove and which w en the needle is received within its groove overhangs the walls thereof; in combination with a projection upon the upper side of the wall of the groove, which w en the needle is thrust forward, cooperates with the side of the loop opener and holds it pressed against-the side of the needle as it performs its function of opening the loop.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto signed my name, 'at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, this 22nd day of Februar 1906.;

- ALBERT F S'lER.

Witnesses:

GEORGE J. GRAFF, JAMES H. BELL. 

